Friday, August 31, 2012

Latent pain from the arch taping during Leadville has subsided, and it seems like my plantar fasciitis is well on its way to recovery.

Headed up to Horsetooth yesterday with Brad and Erlend for my second Horsetooth Rock ascent time trial. I managed to eke out a 23:45 - 4 seconds off Sam's fastest known time. That was without warming up and still feeling some plantar fascia pain. Depending upon how I feel I may make an effort to turn the 24 hours of towers event into a long run.

Ultimately, I'm learning that I have plenty of speed and really need to work on very long distance stuff between now and next year's racing season. I'll be doing the Blue Sky Marathon here in October and then running TNF Endurance Challenge 50 mile the weekend before the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco. Obviously the marathon is a fast race, but I'm confident that I can lay down a pretty fast time in the Headlands. After a year's worth of running on Colorado trails, California's comparatively pristine coastal trails should feel easy.

Monday, August 20, 2012

A more lengthy report is forthcoming, but I figured I would write some thoughts down while they're still fresh.

This year's Leadville 100 was the most painful thing I have ever done. I entered the race with some mild plantar fasciitis in my right foot that ballooned into an extremely painful entrapped nerve. Add in some blisters from altering my gait and I had one very abused foot. I'd say it was 8-9/10 on the pain scale from mile 70 to the finish.

It was humbling to run so slowly and finish not in the dead of night, but at sunrise. However, it feels better to have finished and stuck it out than to have quit when I knew it wouldn't end well. I took Ken's words to heart and never thought of quitting, even when I was reduced to focusing on just the next step. Finish what you start.

Never drink a full can of coke at an aid station. You will turn into a fire hydrant of Clif Shot Blok chunks and stinging, fizzy vomit. It is true that you feel fantastic afterward.